Eating Habits: Healthy at Breakfast, Junk Food at Night

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but it seems that the rest of our diet is downhill from there. Data collected by Massive Health’s iPhone app, Eatery, shows the change in eating habits throughout the day.

Massive Health founder Aza Raskin told NPR, “There is a 1.7 percent overall decrease in healthiness of what's eaten for every hour of the day that passes after breakfast.”

An interactive visual shows similar patterns throughout the world, not just in North America—healthy food in the morning progressing to junk food late at night. The data represents 500,000 meals from 50 countries over five months.

The data, however, doesn’t explain why our eating habits change throughout the day. It could be a lack of healthy food options later in the evening, although that may not be true if you are at home with a bowl full of apples.

It could also be related to a decrease in willpower as the day passes. Each donut or bag of chips drains us of the strength to resist until we finally succumb to those delicious late night temptations.